The Boston OT Party

Bruins battle back from brink, 4-1 deficit to move on

The Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins met Monday night in Boston in the seventh and deciding game of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal. The Leafs pulled ahead 4-1 in the third period before Boston answered with three unanswered goals, sending the game to overtime. Patrice Bergeron scored the overtime winner, eliminating the Leafs from the Stanley Cup playoffs.

BOSTON -- Patrice Bergeron scored at 6:05 of overtime to complete a miraculous Boston comeback as the Bruins rallied to oust the Toronto Maple Leafs from the playoffs with a nail-biting 5-4 victory in Game 7 Monday night.

Bergeron, with his second of the night, ended it as the Bruins blitzed the Toronto goal. The Leafs could not clear the puck and the Bruins forward snapped home a shot.

Two late goals in the space of 31 seconds by Boston's Milan Lucic and Bergeron, with goalie Tuukka Rask off for the extra attacker, shockingly tied the game up at 4-4.

It had looked like two early goals by defenceman Cody Franson had been enough to propel Toronto into the next round of the playoffs. The Leafs led 4-1 midway through the third period when the Bruins started pulling rabbits out of their hat with three unanswered goals -- the last two with the clock running out.

It marked the first time the Bruins have come back from a three-goal deficit in a playoff game since April 11, 1990, when they trailed the Hartford Whalers by a 5-2 score in the third period but went on to win 6-5.

"We played extremely hard for six games. That 55 minutes (in Game 7) we threw everything we had at them. It's just an extremely disappointing loss," said a muted Dion Phaneuf.

The Bruins will face the Rangers in the second round after New York shut out the Washington Capitals 5-0 in another Game 7 Monday.

'We played extremely hard for six games. That 55 minutes (in Game 7) we threw everything we had at them'

-- Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf

The capacity crowd, which had been disgruntled most of the night, partied as it waited for an overtime period that never seemed in the cards.

Leading 2-1 entering the third period, Phil Kessel added an insurance goal at 2:09, poking in the puck into a gaping goal after Nazem Kadri hit the post. Kessel's fourth goal of the post-season was helped by a Bruins giveaway.

Kadri then scored on a two-one-one, banging home Kessel's rebound at 5:29 to seemingly hammer another nail in the Boston coffin.

At the other end, James Reimer seemed to have got into the Bruins' heads until Nathan Horton swept in a pass from Lucic, who swooped behind the net and then got the puck through traffic to his linemate to cut the lead to 4-2 at 9:18.

That sparked a late flurry by the Bruins and Lucic, stuffing in the puck from in close, scored with 1:22 remaining. Then Bergeron beat Reimer with 51 seconds left as hulking Bruins captain Zdeno Chara screened the Toronto goalie.

Rich Peverley had a chance to win it in the dying seconds but couldn't get good wood on it after a fat Reimer rebound.

The fourth-seeded Bruins, who dug their own hole by failing to finish off the Leafs in Games 5 and 6, started well but soon found themselves short on defencemen, discipline and inspiration. Upset at the officiating as the game wore on, the Boston players seemed preoccupied with a jab here, a punch there.

It was as if they were more interested in getting even on the ice than the scoreboard.

Boston began to looked tired and dispirited. The opportunistic Leafs, in contrast, grew in stature and confidence.

Franson, who had four goals in 45 games during the regular season, upped his playoff points total to three goals and three assists in seven games. Kadri and Kessel both had a goal and an assist while linemate James van Riemsdyk had two assists

The last Toronto defenceman to score two goals in a playoff game was Tomas Kaberle on April 14, 2003, against Philadelphia.

Matt Bartkowski, profiting from a Franson turnover, opened the scoring for Boston.

The Bruins won Game 1 in Boston and Games 3 and 4 (in OT) in Toronto. The Leafs took Games 2 and 5 in Boston and Game 6 in Toronto.

After Game 6, Boston coach Claude Julien had talked of his Jekyll and Hyde team this season. The question facing Boston fans was which Bruins team would show up Monday.

The Bad Bruins -- the team that exited the 2012 playoffs by losing Game 7 to Washington in 2012 and the one in 2010 that won three games against Philadelphia only to lose the next four. Or the Good Bruins -- the team that won the Cup in 2011 by winning Game 7s against Montreal, Tampa Bay and Vancouver in the final.

Julien asked for a 60-minute effort and the Bruins came out bristling. David Krejci's line had three shots on goal in the first shift, including a two-on-one on Reimer.

Both team had injury issues.

Toronto was without injured centre Tyler Bozak (upper body) while Boston had problems on the blue-line with Andrew Ference and Wade Redden (undisclosed) both out.

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